Migration & Trafficking

Closing the Gaps: The need to improve identification and services to child victims of trafficking - Elzbieta M. Gozdziak and Margaret Mac Donnell - Human trafficking for sexual exploitation and forced labor is believed to be one of the fastest growing areas of criminal activity. The vast majority of victims of severe forms of trafficking are women and children. Related to biophysiological,and underscores the necessity of special attention to their particular needs.In the United States,most trafficking victims,but particularly child victims,go unidentified and even fewer gain access to the services developed to help them break free from their traffickers and reintegrate into the wider society.This paper uses a case study approach to examine the inadequacies and service gaps in the system established in the United States to care for child victims of trafficking.The case study is discussed within a broader context of the evolution of the system of care available to child victims of trafficking,including the transfer of care of undocumented children in federal custody from the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).. Read more...

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A Passage to Hope - state of world population 2006 - Today, women constitute almost half of all international migrants worldwide —95 million. Yet, despite contributions to poverty reduction and struggling economies, it is only recently that the international community has begun to grasp the significance of what migrant women have to offer. And it is only recently that policymakers are acknowledging the particular challenges and risks women confront when venturing into new lands. Read more...
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Eroticism, Sensuality and “Women's Secrets” among the Baganda - Sylvia Tamale - The article has explored the dynamism and complexity of sexual culture as illustrated by the institution of Ssenga. Sexuality is a site for the production of hegemonic gender discourse, presenting both constraints and opportunities for empowerment. In many African contexts, the relationship of women to their own bodies is often different from the disembodied, negative relations rooted in the legacy of colonialism. Read more...

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Ouch! Western feminists' 'wounded attachment' to the 'third world prostitute' - Jo Doezema - Decolonization, independence movements, new social movements, grassroots organizations and NGOs have brought new actors to the international political stage, and power cannot be read simply off geographical lines. Thus contemporary utilizations of prostitutes 'suffering bodies' by western feminists cannot be analysed as a perfect analogue to utilizations by Victorian feminists Read more...

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Trafficking in Women and Children - Judge Nimfa Cuesta Vilches - A girl child in the Philippines is discriminated upon early in life due to culture-based and family reinforced gender biases. For instance, despite her special nutritional needs in preparation as future mother and nurturer, the girl child is allotted less food than her father and her brothers. When money for education is scarce, her brothers are given the preference.

The Filipino girl child takes the stereotyped role of her mother who is portrayed as an abused and submissive woman relegated to domestic work. Moreover, the public considers girls and women as sex objects and typifies them as club/bar entertainers, beauty pageant contestants, and racy or pornographic film stars. Read more...

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Tricks and the Law - Ratna Kapur - In this article, Ratna Kapur addresses the issue of the legal regulation of trafficking, sex work/prostitution and migration. The reasons for addressing all three of these areas simultaneously in a conference that is focused primarily on trafficking, is to demonstrate the confusions and conflations that are occurring in this area of law, that result in harming more women rather than help. Her underlying concern is that the human rights of migrants, victims of trafficking and sex workers are non-negotiable. Read More....

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Sex Trafficking is Not “Sex Work” - Janice G. Raymond - Jennifer Block’s article on sex trafficking in the Summer/Autumn 2004 issue of Conscience, “Why the Faith Trade Is Interested in the Sex Trade,” caused considerable controversy. Janice G. Raymond, of the Coalition against Trafficking in Women International (CATW), requested the opportunity to present an opposing viewpoint. Read More...

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Ten Reasons for Not Legalizing Prostitution - And a Legal Response to the Demand for Prostitution - Janice G. Raymond - Since the mid-1980s, the debate about how to address prostitution legally has become a subject of legislative action Some countries in Europe, most notably the Netherlands and Germany among others, have legalized and/or decriminalized systems of prostitution, which includes decriminalizing pimps, brothels and buyers, also known as “customers or johns” Other governments, such as Thailand, legally prohibit prostitution activities and enterprises but in reality tolerate brothels and the buying of women for commercial sexual exploitation, especially in its sex tourism industry. Sweden, has taken a different legal approach --penalizing the buyers while at the same time decriminalizing the women in prostitution. Read more....

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"Bad for the Body, Bad for the Heart": Prostitution Harms Women Even if Legalized or Decriminalized - Melissa Farley - Prostitution Research & Education - Can the physical, social, and psychological harms of prostitution be controlled or decreased by decriminalization, regulation, or other state monitoring? Is there any way to make prostitution safer? Is it possible to protect the human rights of those in prostitution? Does legalization or decriminalization decrease the dangers of prostitution? Read More....

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Nepal's victims of human trafficking shy away from justice - Kurakani T.K. - More Nepalese women and children are being tricked into sexual exploitation outside their country, but fewer victims are turning up in court to seek justice. The annual report of the Office of the Attorney General of the Kingdom of Nepal says the number of women victims seeking justice has gone down in the past couple of years - only 54 cases were filed in 2002-03. Read More....